Theos-Talk Archives (January 1995 Message tl00231)

Murray: <Yes, but I would add that the two Laws are really on a
continuum, with range of degrees of purposeful causality in
between.  At the Accident end of the scale, the causes are
certainly there, but they are relatively trivial and local, for
example a car accident caused by a molecular weakness in a tire
wall AND no other karma behind to express itself through the
incident.>

Murray, I think you are too new to theos-l to recall our
discussions on chaos theory and what I call the Chaos Factor.
While order (Kosmos) is pretty much causal, chaos (which affects
us through the Chaos Factor) is acausal in the Jungian sense of
synchronicity.  According to C.G.  Jung and Wolfgang Pauli, who
worked together on the concept of synchronicity, our
matter-energy continuum is affected by both causality (which is
the realm of physics) and synchronicity (the realm of psychology)
- BTW, synchronicity is an acausal principle of meaningful
coincidence.  Causality works in the outward physical plane while
synchronicity (acausality) works within the psyche and both
interrelate together in our lives.

Let me try to put this theory of mine (which relates Jungian
psychology, physics, chaos theory, and theosophy together) in a
nutshell in my own words: Karma is a causal principle acting
through Order.  The Chaos Factor is an acausal principle acting
through Chaos.  What I call the Chaos Factor is then the polar
complement of Karma.  Karma makes sense (i.e., gives us a sense
of justice that is otherwise lacking in this world) but the Chaos
Factor makes no sense at all (i.e., gives us a sense of
hopelessness and out-of-controlness).  I was not previously aware
of the Fate/Accident theory Paul brought up, but it certainly
fits because Fate=Order while Accident=Chaos.  All of these
dualities express the central idea of a dual manifestation, and
you just can't have order without a little complementary chaos.

There is another way of looking at all of this: When your tire
blows out and you can't find any karmic reason for it (i.e., why
*my* tire and not someone else's?) look to the Chaos Factor -
maybe a result of your collective karma and maybe a result of
karma from previous lives, who knows?

Murray: <You can extract lessons even from accidents, if you will
but look for them.>

I have to disagree.  I have looked for personal karmic reasons
for events as well as lessons to be learned without success as
have everyone else.  We all have little things happen to us every
day that have no explanation: Why did I have to hit all the
lights red today when I am in a hurry? Why did my daughter spill
ink on my good shirt? Why did the cat barf on my new rug? Why
can't I find my car keys? Perhaps we can learn patience? On the
other hand, perhaps we can learn simply that sh** happens.  But
we all undergo experiences for which there seems to be no karmic
explanation, and these I would put under the heading of the Chaos
Factor.  When we come into this world, we accept the rules of the
game, and one of them is that chaotic things will happen to us
now and then that are neither planned nor expected.  In a
theosophical sense, these fall under the umbrella of collective
karma, but because they make no personal sense to us I call it
the Chaos Factor.

          Jerry S.